The term “battery” is used herein to include accumulators. In the manufacture of lead acid and similar batteries, battery plates are assembled into stacks or groups for insertion into a compartment of a battery box. Generally in such a stack, separators are provided between plates, or alternate plates are enveloped in a porous material in order to separate adjacent plates in the battery box.
Battery plates generally have a pasted plate construction and are brittle and porous. This means that particular care has to be taken when handling battery plates to avoid breakage and damage.
One known apparatus for stacking battery plates uses a Ferris wheel-type arrangement, having a plurality of carriers for transporting plates. A delivery conveyor feeds plates or pairs of plates into carriers at a first location. Once the plate or pair of plates is located on a carrier the Ferris wheel then rotates transport the plates to a position where a stack of plates can be accumulated, and to position a subsequent carrier to receive the next plate(s). This type of machine has a typical maximum operating speed of less than 130 plates per minute. Other machines used in the manufacture of battery plates have been developed such that they can generally be operated at a higher output than known battery plate stackers, such as the Ferris wheel type. This means that the battery stacker machine becomes a bottle-neck in the production and assembly line, effectively limiting the output of the whole production and assembly line to that of the battery stacker. Attempts have been made to increase the operating speed of existing battery stacking apparatus. However, it has not been possible to achieve the desired operating speeds. A possible solution to the problem of how to increase output would be to provide two of the known battery stacking machine operating in series. However, this increases the complexity and cost of the apparatus. Embodiments of the invention seek to provide an apparatus which overcome some or all of these problems.